


Loss

by windstar127



Category: Lythande - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-31 02:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1026316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windstar127/pseuds/windstar127
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because you just know that whatever Lythande felt for Westerly, it wasn't going to end well.  Because Lythande isn't really allowed to have relationships that aren't just plain doomed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loss

"If not for you, Wess would still be alive," the boy spat at her.

Lythande said nothing, but cradled the broken form of the young woman in her arms.

"She loved you and paid for it with her life. What did she know of you, that she would be hunted so?"

Still the magician said nothing, though the blue star upon her brow blazed with an inner fire.

"You killed her. You and your damnable secrets."

"Yes, I did," her voice, normally so rich and golden, was harsh and rough with grief. She had warned Westerly when they first met that it was dangerous to love her, but the younger woman would not take heed. She had held the secret to Lyathande's life and power both and died because of it. Those midnight blue eyes would never sparkle again, and the smile she so treasured was stilled forever. She smoothed the tangled hair from the girl's bruised face and looked up to face her accusers.

Chan, fair as Westerly was dark. Quartz, a woman and soldier as tall as her. Aerie and Satan, winged folk found only in Kaimas. Her Westerly's family, who considered her now an interloper at best and the cause of their pain at worst.

"Leave," Quartz commanded. "Leave us to mourn our sister."

She was my sister and more, Lythande wanted to say but did not. Westerly, who in a few scant months had brought her more joy than she had felt in a lifetime or more. Westerly, who loved her and died still loyal. Westerly, her lover and sister and student and everything good and bright in her life. She glared at those arrayed around her with cold hard eyes.

How dare you think my loss any less than yours?

Instead she stilled her raging heart, though the blue star blazed ever fiercer, so bright and angry that Chan stepped back unconsciously. "As you wish," she said, schooling her voice to some semblance of its former mellow tones. She bent down and kissed Westerly's cold lips tenderly as if the girl could still feel it.

"Farewell, my beloved Westerly. May I see you again after the last battle between Law and Chaos, when the world is made anew."

She laid the girl down with a final lingering glance and bowed stiffly yet politely to the rest. Then she vanished as her dark robe merged with the shadows, for was she not Lythande the Shadow, Lythande the Minstrel and Adept of the Blue Star, well nigh immortal so long as her secret remain so. What was the loss of one mortal child to one such as her?

Yet her heart ached as a gaping wound, and so much the pain that she was surprised to find her robes were not covered in heart's blood. Somewhere, in a place where no one could see, Lythande wept until she could weep no more. 

There would be no love for one such as her, no sweetheart or lover to wait for her return from a long journey, for she had only pain and death to offer. And so she stilled her aching heart, called the frost and chill into her heart to make it one of stone instead of flesh. If she could not be drawn to love nor heart's desire, she could not be hurt nor hurt others.

And with that, Lythande drew the hood of the dark seamless robe over her head and walked down a new path to continue her journey.


End file.
